Q&A for How to Count to 100 in Irish

"Míle" is "thousand" in Irish, according to Google Translation.

Of course. But there are plenty of YouTube videos you can put on a playlist and listen to instead (for free).

The Irish alphabet doesn't actually contain the letter H, the H you're seeing is the modern depiction of the "séimhiú" or lenition. It used to be depicted by a dot over the consonant, but more commonly now the letter "h" is used directly following the consonant. Its purpose is to make the word easier and more natural to say, basically. Saying "a dó déag" with the two harsh "d" sounds right after one another is a little awkward, so the séimhiú helps the speaker out by softening the second "d" sound into something that'll flow more naturally from the tongue. If you're interested in learning more, google séimhiú (lenition) and urú (eclipsis).

Three hundred thirty-four is "trí chéad is tríocha a ceathair" in Irish. The pronunciation changes for two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, etc. because of a change called lenition. For numbers seven through nine, this change is called eclipsis. 400 = ceithre chéad, 500 = cúig chéad, 600 = sé chéad, 700= seacht gcéad, 800 = ocht gcéad, 90 = naoi gcéad (gc is pronounced just like "g" in "gun").

"Ceann" isn't used to count things. It's a pronoun you can use to avoid repeating the same word. "Ceann" literally means "head." For example, I have two dogs, but my sister has four, would be translated literally as "Is two dogs I have, but is four heads have my sister." "Tá dhá mhadra agam, ach tá ceithre cinn ag mo dheirfiúr."

This is standard for all dialects of Irish. The only difference would be perhaps in how the sounds are pronounced.

To say "zero" (0) in Irish is "a náid." Keep in mind this is only when you're counting by itself. "Zero, one, two, three"... is "a náid, a haon, a dó, a trí...".

April 4, 1987, is said like "the fourth day of the month April nineteen eighty seven." In Irish, it's written out like "an ceathrú lá de mhi Aibreán naoi déag ochtó seacht. You can also say "an ceathrú lá d'Aibreán" to shorten it a bit. It can abbreviated when written as 4 Aibreán 1987 or 4ú Aibreán 1987.

Depending on the dialect, this would actually be translated as: "Tá aon chapall is fiche ar an bhfeirm" (Standard/Connact/Munster) or "Tá aon chapall is fiche ar an fheirm" (Ulster). This article explains how to count numbers, but not how to count things. When you are counting things, the numbers change and so do how you say it. For this, the singles digit (1-9) always comes before the noun, and then the tens digit comes after, followed by the word "is," which is just a shortening of the word "agus" (and).